Planning a POSITIVE Dose for the Holidays!

What do you remember about the holidays from your childhood?

To me the holidays are all about moments created with my mother's special baking and entertaining in our home.  The happy memories from my childhood are the moments created around family, food, fun and friends.  I fondly remember traditions and celebrations and do my best to recreate similar moments for my children.

As I reminisce this year I am thinking about why handmade and homemade cards, crafts and food gifts make the holidays memorable!  Someone has thought about us and created a gift especially for us!  There is nothing better to make someone feel special and appreciated.  

Tell me what you remember about holidays as a child and what made them so special.  Was it the food and helping in the kitchen with baking?  Was it a shopping experience with your parents or siblings that made you feel loved and appreciated?  Was there a cafe or restaurant that always felt welcoming especially during the holidays you visited as a treat?

We all want to return to the places that allow us to belong and create a positive and memorable experience.  I'm excited this year to share my new Close To My Heart business with friends and family creating amazing cards and tags to share on homemade food gifts!  I actually created the 'Ho Ho Ho' card below with the CTMH Cricut Cartridge Art Philosophy.

What are you planning for your POSITIVE DOSE this holiday season?  Will you be returning to the kitchen of your childhood home and recreating some of the special treats for your family that your mom or mum created for you?

As I return to the happy memories of my childhood this season I hope you can, too!

Handmade especially for you! 

It has been an amazing first 30 days of our new CTMH businesses!

Words that come to mind to describe the start of our business include: 

Outstanding
Congratulations
Bravo
Well Done
Inspiring
Cheering You On
Go Team

It is all better than expected.
It is all better than I could have planned for.
It is all better than I could have imagined!

I am absolutely humbled that 90 days ago on the 4th of May our news was
that our business was ceasing immediately as our old company was going
into Administration or winding-down.  Now we are back better than ever
with our CTMH businesses!  It has been an incredible journey and the
Executive Team and all of the US and Canadian Consultants from Close To
My Heart have embraced us wholeheartedly and we feel like we are a part of their family.  We have been truly blessed and we are so lucky to have been allowed on this new journey!

I don't think you can plan something like what we have been through or know how you will feel.  In all my 50-something years --- and I've worked since I was 15 years old  --- I have never once experienced life without a paycheck.  I didn't know until May how it felt when a company decided to stop their business, even though we were part of a profitable arm, just because they could.  I didn't know what it felt like to be a creditor and owed money from my employer and I've been a Corporate Consultant for 15 years.  Every other month from August 1997 until April 2013 I received a deposit into my account.  Maybe I can have more humility when I hear of other businesses that go into Administration and know what that means for dozens, hundreds or thousands that will find themselves without their paychecks and become creditors.  Maybe I can have more empathy for those that aren't able to find jobs or have worked and will not be paid because their employers don't have enough funds to pay them.  I'm not sure but I know things happen for a reason and we all have lessons to learn along the way.

So, when you check your bank deposit with your paycheck for August take a
minute and think for a moment about how grateful you feel to your employer for employing you and paying you.  Take a minute and think about those that are not going to be paid even though they did their job but their company is not in a financial position to pay them.  And take another minute for a kind thought or prayer for all the people in the world that would love to have a job and a paycheck but don't right now. We all need to be valued!  For those of us lucky enough with a place to go to work, in an environment where we feel like we belong -- we are the lucky ones!

My biggest lesson in the last 90 days has been the importance of being careful with words and comments or personal opinions.  The messages we write and speak should always be kind and supportive.  Life it too short to say hurtful or harmful things to others or to post a comment that is not helpful.  I am personally so grateful for the kind messages and comments I received during the past three months.  Words cannot express my appreciation for all the support and belief in the journey, our Plan B and now our new CTMH home.

The purpose of my blog has always been about having an awareness and acting on that knowledge to say something kind or helpful to someone at work, at home or someone you don't even know.  The message today is to take notice of those around you and prompt yourself to make a kind comment if someone looks like they are having the best day ever or if they look like they aren't.  Even asking, "Are you OK?"  Those three little words can make all the difference to someone.  Whose life can you improve today by noticing someone else?

The last 90 days has not turned out like I expected or planned for -- it has been better than I ever could have imagined!  I am having an awesome August and I hope you are, too!

Close To My Heart is launching a new business in July 2013!

Today seems appropriate to start my blog posts since I created this blog almost a year ago and have been waiting for the 'right time' to actually share it!  The past months have brought a lot of change with my business and on the 1st of July I helped launch Close To My Heart for Australasia.  The Positive Dose is my way to give back and prompt others to consider sharing a good idea or message with another person during their normal day.  I have just been introduced to so many lovely CTMH Consultants at their Convention at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  I've experienced their lovely culture where they graciously shared positive thoughts, ideas, handmade cards and projects and am overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude.  It is a wonderful world and a perfect time to be a part of something good!  I hope you stop by, come back for inspiration or motivation or share a dose of positive with us.  I'll be sharing some of my handmade stamped cards on the page for you to copy and share with others when you are prompted to give someone a virtual High-5.  My idea was always to have a way someone could copy and paste a lovely quote, thank you, congratulations or share how proud they are as a parent or child.  I think I've figured out how to share the CTMH message even further now!  I'm new to blogging and new to Twitter.  I could make mistakes!  Let me know what you think and I look forward to hearing from you!

Have an outstanding day!

The Positive Dose - Take a Minute and Make a Moment!: YOU ARE VALUED!

The Positive Dose - Take a Minute and Make a Moment!: YOU ARE VALUED!
Today is Day One!  I have been waiting for the right moment to start posting and worrying about not having enough to say or relevance or adding enough value . . . never mind -- here we go!  I have been working on ideas about encouraging others for years through many situations including a business where I interact with hundreds of people. 

I am personally going to trial the ideas I write about and to start I want to give a positive dose to just one person a day!  I will keep a list of people that I work with, friends and family and commit to sharing a daily dose of positive with at least one person each day from my list!  It can be a simple hello, then find out how someone is doing, and, purposefully check-in with a dose of encouraging words!  If we all took a moment to share a message, phone call, photo or story with one person a day outside of our usual routine what difference could that make to those people?   How much positive energy could we replenish ourselves with?

There is a tab with two questions and you are welcome to respond via Twitter.  Check-out the "Questions For You" and let me know if there a mantra you use every day to meditate?  Or, are there words you tell yourself every morning looking in the mirror getting ready for your day?  Do you have certain helpful and considerate words you use when speaking with your children, your partner, your family, your co-workers or friends?  I really want to know!  Or, would like to learn different phrases so you can improve upon the current collection that don't reflect what you really mean to convey?  Perhaps what others share can be adapted and adopted to suit you!

Thanks for stopping by!  Today is a Good Day!  Take a Minute and Make a Moment HAPPY for someone you know!

YOU ARE VALUED!  I just wrote a reference letter for someone and she wrote back and told me it made her cry to read the words I wrote about her.  We forget and think people know how we feel because we've said it once and we need be reminded often how much simple words of praise can impact and affect those around us!